A Schizophrenic Spider
by Asha Davis
Summary: A crazy ex-employee in search of revenge kidnaps Spiderman. Tony and some friends race to save Peter from the criminal mastermind that is Tiffany Sherwood. The search for the boy is grueling, but that's nothing compared to the aftermath. Please Review! Its a quality story I promise! : )
1. Prologue

Prologue

A middle-aged woman with wild eyes and crazy hair walks up to the camera in the middle of the cement-walled room. Its damp, dark and has a general aura of mildew. This woman, Tiffany Sherwood, pressed the red record button and centers herself between the camera and a large metal table with a cloth on it to cover its contents. She takes a deep breath, grins and speaks.

"Anthony Stark." Her shrill voice begins. "You do not know who I am, but you will."

Even the rats in the corner seem to shrink in fear of this woman's presence.

"My name is Dr. Tiffany Sherwood, now that's a Ph.D., not an MD, and I am a victim of your companies' sexist policies." She shifts her body weight and straightens her back. She portrays arrogance and confidence with every movement.

"I have been a loyal employee for the past 15 years. I came to work for you directly after receiving my Ph.D. in computer science from MIT. You know MIT, right? One of the best colleges in the world, renown for the sciences, I believe you attend MIT at some point... am I correct?"

Her grin resembles the Grinch, all that's missing is the green fur.

"I have worked for your company in its coding department for the last 15 years of my life. I have given this company everything. I have no husband, no boyfriend, no children, no social life... just my work. For a long time that was enough. In fact, it would still be enough if it had not been for all the promotions I have been passed up for over the years. Now a person would expect that after 15 years of hard work they would have received a promotion or two, but I have received zero. Not for a lack of opportunity though. No, over the past 15 years I have watched as my male coworkers have received promotion after promotion. I have watched as they have gotten positions that I deserve. These state college, bachelor degree boys, children really compared to me, have been handed jobs that I deserve. Now, I am normally a quiet and patient person. However, when Thomas Lewis received a promotion over me serval months ago... that was the last straw."

Tiffany's body language has shifted from calm and collect to obvious suppressed rage. Her fists are clenched, her face is red and her voice has become harsh.

"I am sure you do not know who Tom Lewis is, but that's alright I'll tell you. Lewis was my intern 8 years ago. That's right, my boss is the kid who I taught how to use the copier 8 years ago. Do you know how embarrassing that is? He is almost half my age, has only worked here a third the time I have, and has a doctorate from Empire State University, and he has the job I should have gotten 10 years ago. This was the last straw. I marched up to my boss, Mark Wilson, and asked him why I have not gotten the promotion. Why had I spent the last 15 years benched from management."

The enraged woman steps closer to the camera, looking directly into it.

"Do you know what he said? He said I did not possess the leadership qualities of a manager. That is all he said. Quite a vague answer don't you think? Not being satisfied with his answer, I hacked into his computer to look at my file. This wasn't difficult as I have helped design the coding for all of the Stark computers for the last decade."

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of folded paper and begins to read from it.

"Tiffany Sherwood does not possess qualities of a leader. She does not command the respect of those around her as she has no strength behind her words. She is quiet and reserved and is too introverted to hold a position in management. She will do whatever she is told and does not stand up for herself. If she was put in a position of authority I do not believe she would be able to control any single person, let alone an entire group of people. I recommend she remains in her position for the rest of her time at this company. It is all she is capable of. -Ty Dawson."

She takes a few moments before speaking again.

"Ty Dawson was my boss 12 years ago. He has long since been promoted out of my division."

Tiffany shakes her head and crunches up the paper in her hands.

"This single recommendation made over a decade ago has kept me from receiving promotions that I deserved! This note made in my file years ago has kept me benched from reaching my full potential!"

Another pause and another step closer.

"Your policy for promotion, Mr. Stark, at your company discriminates against women. It states that the employee must be able to command the respect of their coworkers. How often do men respect women in a work environment? Why should women be punished and barred from a promotion when she cannot command the respect of a man with her mear presence. Shouldn't the man be the one who is penalized for not respecting their boss? Instead, it is once again the women who is punished."

Tiffany Sherwood turns her back to the camera takes a couple paces away from her original spot, stops and turns back to the camera, reorienting herself.

"As I am sure you understand Anthony, I could not just sit by and watch as this injustice continued. No, I had to take this into my own hands. I started with my new boss, Thomas Lewis. All I had to do was hack a couple cars and stoplights and little Tommy boy was all taken care of. The other 4 were just collateral damage. Wrong place wrong time. Next came Mr. "Doesn't possess leadership qualities", Mark Wilson. He actually did my dirty work for me. You see the man was a prolific gambler. All I had to do was hack into his online gambling accounts, change a couple of his bets and overnight he found himself 2.2 million dollars in debt. Like I said earlier, after that he did the rest. I hope his wife and children don't mind the debt he left them. Next came Ty Dawson, the man whose letter has left me nothing but a simple computer programmer, and nothing else. I took a couple weeks to think of his reward. After hours of debating, I finally settled on burning his apartment building down."

Tiffany describes her conquests with a simple matter a factly tone. She is completely composed. Its as if she is reading a book to a child at night.

"I am not going to bore you with the details, but long story short accelerant plus cigarettes tend to have nasty effects. As I sat and watched the building burn and watched as the people poured out of the building and fire trucks arrive to quell my handiwork, I realized I had not truly accomplished anything. A couple people were dead. That's all I had accomplished. Nothing else really. No policies were going to be changed. That's when I thought of you Mr. Stark."

She steps closer to the camera.

"You can change the way this company is run because you are the company. Although, as I watched the firemen and paramedics struggle to bring order to the beautiful chaos I created, I once again realized if I could manage to kill you, all you would be is dead. Again, nothing would change."

She pauses one last time and takes one last step toward the camera. Her evil grin is paralyzing.

"That's when, Mr. Anthony Edward Stark, my inspiration sorta just... swung in."

Tiffany Sherwood laughs as she turns and walks over to the metal table and pulls the cloth off to reveal a strapped down Spiderman.

"You know Spiderman, don't you... Iron Man?" She laughs once again before stating her plan. "I'm going to show you how powerful a woman can be Mr. Stark."


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Good night Aunt May." Peter Parker says as he shuts his bedroom door. It's half past midnight. He got home from patrol a midnight sharp. Aunt May has been pretty strict about his curfew now that she knows he's Spiderman. He waits another ten minutes before sneaking out the window.

"Welcome back Peter," Karen says.

"Thanks, K," Peter mutters. He wants to obey the wishes of his aunt, but so many bad things happen after midnight he can't stand to sit by knowing there are people getting hurt that he could save.

"Peter, may I remind you that you need to get some sleep. You are young and it's important to get your rest."

"Thanks, Karen, but I'm fine."

"My sensors are detecting low blood sugar, malnutrition and a lack of sleep."

"You always say that."

"Its always true."

Peter smiles at the AI's caring nature, but he knows if he stops and takes a break someone will be hurt, someone he could save. The next two hours go by with nothing major. Muggers, armed robberies, and rapes, nothing he can't handle with relative ease.

"Karen, what time is it?" Peter asks after stopping yet another carjacking.

"2:49 AM." She informs him.

"Oops." He says. He meant to be home by 2. "I guess time got away from me."

"How does time get away from someone?" Karen asks. "Time is abstract, it doesn't have the ability to run."

"That's not what it means, its an expression Karen," Peter explains as he heads back to Queens.

He is almost home when he is stopped by the sound of a woman screaming.

"Help me! Someone, please!" Peter groans, he just wants to get home, but he isn't about to let a woman be raped. Stopping he jumps into the alleyway. A man is holding a gun to a woman's throat. A couple flicks of the wrist and the preditor is webbed to the ground. The entire ordeal is completed in a matter of seconds. Although, right as he is about to leave, the woman leaps toward Spiderman.

"Oh thank you, thank you!" She cries.

"No problem ma'ma," Peter says trying to sound older. The back of his neck begins to tingle, a sensation he began to experience a couple months ago. Lately, he has just now beginning to associate the sensation with danger, but there appears to be no danger here. Maybe the tingling is wrong this time.

"I don't know what I would have done without you!" The woman's soft voice cries. She wraps her arms around him. She is an average sized woman, but is bigger than Peter. An explosion of tingling erupts in the back of Peter's head. Something is wrong. His sense has never been wrong before.

"It's no problem, ma'am. I am just doing my j-" A needle is jammed into the back of Spiderman's neck. "What was-"

"Just a sedative little spider." The woman grins. Spiderman's legs buckle beneath him.

"I don't understand." He manages to whisper.

"But you will." She grins. The last thing Peter sees before falling unconscious is the evil grin of Tiffany Sherwood and a taser being brought down on him.

* * *

"This month's sales projections show an increase in investor intrest in home defense systems. I believe the best way to capitalize off this is to-" A man in a grey suit drones on.

Tony does not like coming to these meetings. Why does he need to be here anyway, it's not like the company needs his say so for every single decision. Tony invents and invests. That's pretty much as far as his involvement with the company goes. Eventually, a knock at the door interrupts his boredom.

"Boss." It's Happy, he has poked his head into the room. His face is worried. "There's an alert for you on your phone."

Pepper has started making him leave his phone with Happy during meetings due to his habit of not actually paying attention to what is being discussed, but jokes on her. He doesn't need a phone to ignore a meeting.

"I'll look at it when the meeting is out," Tony tells him. Normally he would jump at the opportunity to leave a meeting, but Pepper had been cracking down on him for walking out on them for "emergencies". Although, according to Tony, an impromptu donut run qualities as an emergency.

"Boss." Happy says firmly. "It's important."

"They all are Happy." Tony waves off, he turns away from the door and faces the bozo in the suit. "Now what were you saying about sales projections and what not?"

"Tony." At the use of his name, Tony's heart jumps. Happy almost never uses his full name, and never protests after he has been shut down. "It's code Underoos."

Immediately the air in the billionaire's lungs is sucked out and his heart quite literally stops. A cold sweat breaks out and the man's normally tanned skin becomes instantly pale. Without another word, Tony gets up and exits the meeting leaving a room of about 15 people confused.

Happy hands the phone to Tony and they walk down the hall. The alert simply reads "Connection Lost" with the Spiderman logo next to the alert.

"When did you get the alert?"

"I got just a few minutes ago." Happy answers swiftly.

"It's 4 o'clock, what's the kid doing at 4 that would cause his suit to lose connection?"

"School gets out at 3." Happy reminds him.

"Right." He mutters. "Give me your phone so I can call him. "

"You don't have his number?" Happy asks confused. The glare he receives in response is his answer. He hands his boss his phone. "Right, I'll go get the car."

Tony calls Peter at least 20 times by the time Happy comes back with the car.

"Do you have his aunt's number?" Tony asks.

"No." Happy answers.

"Why not?"

"I've never even met the woman let alone have her number!"

"Alright fine." He grumbles putting his face in his hands. "I'm sure its nothing, just take me back to the compound."

The next thirty minutes are silent, both men are worried but won't admit it. Loss of connection to the suit can mean any number of things. It doesn't mean automatically mean something bad, but still both Happy and Toby have a dark feeling. Something in their gut is telling them something horrible has happened. Tony doesn't realize he was walked out of the car into his lab on the compound until the words:

"Friday connect me to Spiderman's suit." Come out of his mouth.

His heart pounds and sweat is running down his back. After the longest 30 seconds of his life, Friday comes back with her report.

"No connection can be made."

"Last GPS location." He orders.

"South Hillary St in Queens." She answers. "At approximately 2:52 AM."

"What!" Tony jumps. "Why was it so long ago?"

"It appears Spiderman's suit shorted at that time and it took a while for a loss of connection to reach our systems."

"You have to be kidding me," Tony growls. A lump has planted itself in his throat. The situation is getting increasingly worse.

"Friday... what was... Spiderman's vitals directly before the loss of connection."

"Heightened heart rate, shortness of breath and a presence of diazepam."

The billionaire collapses into the chair directly behind him. Happy has a hand over his mouth. Nobody says anything for what feels like an eternity. Neither knows what to do. The silence is broken by Happy's phone ringing. Tony, who still has it, looks at the caller ID.

"It's Peter." A smile breaks out, and his heart is lifted.

"Petey!" Tony almost laughs as he answers it.

"No, it's May." A woman sniffs. "Is this Happy Hogan?"

"No May, its Tony." Happy swears he can hear Tony's heart literally shatter.

"Oh, Mr. Stark." Her voice cracks. "I was wondering if you had seen Peter because he wasn't in his bed this morning and his phone was on his dresser and his suit is missing. I haven't seen or heard from him all day. I've been trying to get into contact with you but I don't have your number and it's not exactly easy to get your number form anyone. I mean I tried I went to your tower, but apparently, it belongs to a company called Rand now, but-"

"Calm down May." Tony tries to calm her done. "I'm sorry I don't know where he is at, I just got an alert on my phone from his suit about 45 minutes ago and have been looking for him."

"An alert, what kind of alert!" She panics.

"A loss of connection from his suit. Apparently, it shorted out early this morning."He explains.

Instantly the woman becomes hysterical. After attempting to console the poor women Tony is eventually able to calm her down enough to tell her he is sending a car to bring her to the Avengers compound.

"What if something happened to him?" She sobs. "Oh my poor baby! Where is he Mr. Stark? He is my baby!"

Tony can't help but choke up himself. Something has happened to the kid. The stupid, annoying and needy kid that he chose to undertake. The irritating, nosey... wonderful kid.

"Mr. Stark." May breaths calmly. "Peter is all I have left."

"I know... I know." Tony whispers.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Tony sends a SHIELD agent to go and pick up May Parker. Normally that would be a job for Happy, but whoever came after Peter might come after May as well. A quick call to Coulson and a team of agents are sent to her location.

"What are we going to do boss?" Happy asks nervously. He feels responsible for the kid and guilty about him going missing.

"I don't... I don't know." Tony admits. "This isn't really my area of expertise. I guess we should try looking for security footage of the incident. Friday?"

"On it boss." The AI chimes in as if she understands the urgency.

"What has Peter been up to lately?" Tony asks as the AI searches.

"I mean... just the usual."

"What's the usual?"

"School, Spiderman, hanging out with his weird friend Ned, the academic decathlon team."

"When was the last time you talked to him? Did he seem nervous? What have his reports been like lately?" Tony bombards. He really wished he would have kept up with the kid, but after Peter turned down being an Avenger, the young hero had stopped constantly trying to get in touch with the billionaire.

"Honestly boss, the kid hasn't really contacted me in a while." Happy admits. "In the past two months, he has called maybe twice. Once to let me know he had to repair a tare in the suit and another to let me know he was going out of town for the academic decathlon thing he does. Also, he moved again a couple weeks ago. Something about him and his aunt wanting a different atmosphere or something like that, I don't really know"

"What! So you haven't been keeping up with him!" Tony shouts.

"I mean I text him every Friday and ask for a weekly summary, but it's usually just a sentence or two. It's nothing much. Honestly, the kid seems to want his space, so I gave it to him."

Tony wanted to rip Happy a new one, but he knew that wouldn't have been constructive. He knew it wasn't Happy's fault. Plus, it's not like he'd been doing a better job.

"Friday, run Spiderman's suit schematics, what have the readings been for the past two months. Look at medical, hours of use, GPS locations, and suit condition."

"Of course sir." The AI answers. "There appears to be no footage of Spiderman's attack."

The word attack makes Tony and Happy sick to their stomachs.

"I have the schematics," Friday says a couple seconds later as the information appears on the screens in his lab.

Tony walks over to the screen and begins to scroll through the information. Happy joins him.

"What!" Happy exclaims. "Peter broke his wrist a couple weeks ago! How did I not know this!"

"Probably because of this," Tony grumbles pointing to the screen. "The kid hacked the suit and turned off the alerts to me for anything less the life threating situations. Looks like he made a mistake in the coding. That's probably why it took so long for us to get a connection loss alert."

Tony walks over to Happy to look at the other injuries Peter had added to his list. A couple fractured ribs and a few serious cuts.

"Stupid kid." Happy mutters shaking his head.

"Oh my gosh." Tony groans dropping his head to the ground. "Dumb ass kid..."

Happy looks over to see what Tony was looking at. It was Peter's general health analysis Peter has been exhausted and malnourished for several weeks now.

"I'm going to kill him when we get him back." Tony hisses.

"You and me both boss." Happy adds sadly.

* * *

May Parker is kept in a secluded part of the compound in case of attack and for security reasons. Tony doesn't have the heart to face her, so he employs Pepper to keep her company. She is better at the emotional stuff anyways.

Tony and Happy have spent the last 4 hours looking over every piece of data they could find on Peter trying to find out what happened to him, but they are left with nothing.

"I don't know what to do." Tony cries out collapsing into a chair next to Happy.

"I guess that's why we're here then." A smooth voice chimes. Tony and Happy jump up and whip around toward the door.

Standing in the doorway are Natasha, Sam, Vision, Wanda, and Clint.

"A dead guy with an eye patch called and said you needed help," Natasha explains. "He said it was serious, so I bought a few friends along."

"Man you look horrible." Clint laughs. "If I knew it was this bad I would have called up a few friends of my own."

"Spiderman is missing." Tony blurts out frantically ignoring Barton's comment. A tension immediately fills the room. The urgency is realized. Clint's face drains of color.

"The kid?" He asks quietly.

"Yeah Clint, the kid."

* * *

"How about we start off by taking a look under the mask." She smiles. Tiffany places her fingers on the edge of Spiderman's mask and slowly reveals the unconscious hero's face.

"Wow." She gasps playfully. "He's much younger than I thought, can't be more than a teenager. I guess its true what they say about you Mr. Stark. You do like them young!"

Her shrill laugh fills the room leaving even the mildew to cringe.

"Know, how about we wake up our little hero shall we?" She leaves the view of the screen for a second and returns with a couple of loose wires and a bottle of water.

"I should warn you, my daddy was an electrician." She smiles at the camera as she dumps water onto the boy.

"And let there be light!" She laughs as she drops the loose wiring onto Spiderman's chest.

* * *

"I've called all my contacts in the city Tony and nobody knows anything about someone out for Spiderman, at least nobody serious." Natasha sighs. It's midnight. The team has been looking for hours to no avail.

"What about you Sam?" Tony asks hopefully. The man just shakes his head.

"Clint?" Nothing.

"Vision did you find anything useful in the GPS locations?"

"I'm sorry."

"Wanda did you-"

"I'm sorry Tony, nothing in my hydra contacts." She says.

"Tony, I think we should take a br-"

"NO!" Tony cuts Natasha off.

"We can't give up!"

"You've been going at this for hours. You are going to-"

"Look!" Tony pulls up a picture of Peter onto the screen. "This is Peter Parker, AKA Spiderman."

"Geeze Tony, he's young." Sam breaths.

"He's 15 years old. He was 14 in Germany. He's a student at Midtown Science Academy. He has an estimated IQ of 230. His parents were killed in a plane "accident" when he was 7 years old. He was left to live with his aunt and uncle. A couple years later when aliens invaded New York Peter was with his uncle at a construction site because it was bring-your-kid-to-work day. At some point, one of us dropped a building on the kid and his uncle. They pinned under a slab of concrete for 4 days. During which Peter's uncle bled to death in the 8-year-old's arms. If that wasn't bad enough Peter had to sit by himself buried under concrete for serval days with his uncle's decaying body clutched in his arms. Then, he went and had to run into my dumbass and get himself fully screwed over when I left him to fight his prom date's dad aka the Vulture all by himself. Finally, on top of all of all that I found out a couple hours ago the kid hasn't been eating enough because his aunt can't afford the food bill of a superhuman metabolism, so instead, the kid has just been starving himself."

By the end of his monologue, Tony is choking back tears. How could he have screwed up so bad?

There is a long moment of silence. Nobody knows what to say. Clint is clearly biting his own tongue as not to cry in front of the team. After all, he has a son about Peter's age. Wanda and Vision stand close to each other for the comfort. Sam avoids eye contact. Natasha is the only able to hold eye contact with Tony.

"Tony I-" She is interrupted by a gasp from Happy.

"Boss look!" On the screen is a wide haired woman grinning from ear to ear.

"Anthony Stark, you do know who I am, but you will."

* * *

"Who are you? What do you want!" Peter screams for what seems like the thousandth time to him. He doesn't know how long he has been in this dungeon with this woman. All he knows is it feels like an eternity. She has switched from electricity to knifes and back to electricity. She has continued her torture wordlessly.

Finally, after another round with the knife, she breaks her silence, but she does not direct her words toward him.

"I hope you are enjoying this little show, Anthony. I know I am." She smiles calmly. "Have I proved to you how strong a woman can be? Am I commanding respect yet?"

"Anthony... commanding respect..." Peter yelps. "What does this have to do with me?"

Tiffany, ignoring the teen, walks over to him and slowly injects the young boy with a sedative.

"Don't worry, I'm not totally heartless. I'm just giving the boy a break, and frankly, I need a break myself." She shrugs. "I'll be back in a few hours. Ciao!"

With that, she leaves the view of the screen and walks into a different room.

"Wait. what's going on? I don't understand. who are you talking to? I don't..." With that Peter slips into obscurity.

 **Quick AN: This isn't a gory story. It holds to the rating I gave it.**


	4. Chapter 3

**AN: A minor Agents of Shield crossover begins here. Also, I didn't realize till today my page breaks didn't transfer over from Grammarly. Its fixed now, sorry if there was confusion.**

Chapter 3

Nobody in the lab has dry eyes, not even the master assassins. The past 5 hours have been grueling. Tony sits on the ground looking absolutely defeated. Natasha stands planted at the screen. Her face wet with evidence of a heart for the young hero. Upon Peter's last words, Clint has left to call his wife and kids. Screw waking them up early. Sam looks lost in his own memories of war and destruction and Wanda has curled herself inside the arms of Vision. Happy left hours ago. He couldn't take watching the young boy scream.

"Who is she." Natasha cracks out.

"Exactly who she says she is." Tony answers in a weak voice. "I looked up her file a couple hours ago. She worked at my company for years until she was fired about a month ago for not showing up to work. She doesn't have a new place of employment, home address or even a PO box."

"She's a ghost," Sam mutters.

"Can you trace the video feed?" Natasha asks.

"DON'T YOU THNK I'VE ALREADY TRIED THAT!" Tony barks at her. Silence. "I'm sorry. I'm just stressed. Tiffany Sherwood has hacked Friday and hidden her location through days of code. She helped to design all the computer systems at Stark industries. I can't get past her. Not without help anyways, and even with the help, it's going to take days. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to find a ghost in a city with 9 million people."

"Well, luckily for you Nat and I do," Clint says walking into the room, red eyes and all.

"I thought you were calling your family," Natasha says.

"I left a voicemail." He breathes. "Don't worry Tony, we'll find your kid."

"How?"

"First thing you need to do is get some rest," Natasha says. "All of you do. Clint and I will be back in a couple hours with backup."

"What!" Tony snaps. "You want me to rest at a time like this!"

"Trust us, Tony. We have done this before." Clint warns him. "This isn't going to be over in a couple hours. You are going to have to rest at some point whether you like it or not. You rest when he rests."

Tony wants to protest, but quite frankly he can't. With a nod, the room empties leaving Clint and Natasha to devise a game plan.

"I didn't realize how important the little Spandexed web-slinger was to Tony," Natasha admits.

"I didn't realize how damn young he was," Clint says with his hands in his face. Peter is only 3 years older than his son Cooper. "What was Tony thinking bringing a kid into battle?"

"I don't know." Natasha sighs. "But that doesn't matter right now. Getting him back does. I'll reach other to some of my SHIELD contacts and get some backup on the technical side."

"Great, I'll look into the Tiffany lady, I'll see what I can dig up on her, and maybe do a little bit of light recon."

"You mean stalking." The super spy smiles.

"Potato-Potato," Clint smirks. With that, the two partners in crime head their separate ways.

In a matter of hours the team, minus Clint, have regrouped with a little extra back up.

"Who the hell you they?" Tony asks rudely.

"This is Agent Daisy Johnson, Agent Jemma Simmons, and Agent Leopold Fitz." Natasha introduces.

"Nice to meet you," Sam says giving a charming grin and handshake to Daisy Johnson. "The name's Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, AKA Avenger, AKA-"

"War criminal." Tony cuts in. "Can we focus please?"

"Right," Sam grumbles. He'll have to get back to that.

"Agents Johnson and Fitz are here to help you hack your systems back and find Spiderman," Natasha informs Tony. "They are the best I know."

Tony nods and gives them a quick scan, looking for compliance.

"Agent Simmons is here to help regulate Spiderman's... health," Natasha says. "She's an expert on superhuman biology."

"Oh, I'm quite excited to observe the Spiderman's biology. He has fascinated me since his battle Germany a couple months ago. Now, do you know how exactly he received his abilities? It'd really be a help to know his origins when observing him-"

"Jemma," Natasha says firmly, but still kindly.

"Oh right." Jemma blushes. "I am truly sorry about the circumstance though."

"Vision, why don't you show the Agent the video and she can begin to analyze Spiderman's health so far. Also, give her his medical history." Vision and Jemma nod and follow their instructions. Just as the two were leaving, Clint walks in wearing a disgruntled expression.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Natasha asks her partner.

"Yeah." He grunts.

"What were you looking for?" Tony asks mainly out of curiosity, partly to make sure their time was being spent wisely.

"Ehh... it's better you don't know, trust me." Clint says shifting uneasily. "Let's just say it's a good thing I'm already a war criminal."

"Right," Tony mutters. "Come on you two, we have a lot of work to do."

With that Natasha, Clint, Wanda, and Sam are the only ones left.

"You two are going to need to come with me," Clint grumbles uneasily. "This is going to be a new experience."

"Go easy on them Barton." Natasha smiles.

"Are you going to analyze the video for clues on the location?" Clint asks.

"Yeah, I'll let you know what I find." With that, the group breaks away to their respective assignments.

* * *

"This is a hell of a lot of firewalls and code to sift through," Daisy mutters as she looks at her job ahead of her.

"No kidding," Fitz mutters as he begins to attempt to manually restart Friday.

"Its been so long since I've hacked anything." Daisy smiles. It's exhilarating to go back to hacking. In a way its like she is returning to her roots.

"What do you mean it been a while?" Tony asks sharply. "I thought coding was your job?"

"It was, but I sorta had a career change a while back... but don't worry I'm still good with computers."

"I'm not worried. If the Widow says you are good enough then you are good enough."

Warmth spreads through Daisy's chest. It was a nice compliment to receive.

"So, this Spiderman guy... who is he?" Fitz asks.

"I can't tell you that," Tony tells him flatly. "You'll probably see his face and hear his voice at some point during this process, but that's all you are going to get."

"Fair enough," Daisy says glaring at Fitz for asking the question.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"This Spiderman is quite resilient," Jemma says uneasily. She's about two hours into the video and is certainly not enjoying herself as much as she taught she would.

"Indeed he is." Vision says. "He fought valiantly in Germany."

"You wouldn't happen to have any DNA samples for me?" She asks. "That would help me better analyze his capabilities and estimate the state of his health as well as make projections."

"I'm afraid I do not, but I can see if Tony Stark has any." Vision answers leaving the lab to go and look for the inventor.

Jemma looks back at the screen. She has paused the recording to write down some notes. Using the vital readings she had been able to deduce it was likely that this Spiderman was underweight and most likely dehydrated upon capture. This is certainly not going to help him. There was still a live stream being broadcasted, but there had been no movement for several hours. It appeared some healing had already occurred in the past few hours, but nothing major. Looking through Spiderman's recent medical records she calculated he typically healed at 5 times the rate of a normal human being. This was good news. However, there is a downside to super human's healing abilities. If he were to heal incorrectly, the damage would only be multiplied. Luckily lacerations and burns were the only damage they were dealing with right now. Jemma hopes that is all they will have to deal with, but she has seen this sort of thing before. It will get worse, much worse before it gets any better.

* * *

"Remind me why we are doing this?" Sam asks Hawkeye over the coms. "Wanda and I been watching these two elderly people in this retirement home the last 3 hours and the only thing exciting that has happened is the old woman dropped a bingo piece."

"The people you two are watching are Linda and Eric Sherwood are the subject's parents," Clint explains. "I am watching Elli Jenson, the subject's, from what I have gathered best and only friend. According to Tiffany Sherwood's phone records anyways."

"Yeah, I got that, but why are we watching them? How does this help us find the kid?" Sam clarifies.

"Becuase, contrary to what that psycho would like you to believe, Tiffany Sherwood is not a dominant personality. She does not have the ability to live all these years without consistent human contact. She would not have been able to do any of this without a partner, a more domineering one most likely.

"Great, so we are waiting to see if this Sherwood woman comes to visit either of these people?" Sam questions.

"Yes and no." Clint answers. "We'll wait to see if she comes to us, but if she doesn't then we are going to have to use more enhanced techniques."

"Enhanced?" Wanda gulps. "Does that mean torture! You want us to torture an innocent pair of elderly people!"

"I didn't say anything about torture or wanting you to do anything, just that we might need to make contact with our subject." Clint clarifies. "But let's just hope it doesn't get to that point."

* * *

"Agent Simmons asked me to ask you if you had a sample of Spiderman's DNA." VIsions states walking into Tony's computer lab.

"I don't," Tony answers flatly not looking up from the computer screen. Vision, sensing the obvious tension in the room, simply nods and turns around, but before he could exit a shrill voice interrupts him.

"I'm baaaaacccckkkkk!" The psych woman sings walking back onto the screen. "How's the search coming Iron Man?"

"Crazy ass bitch," Tony mutters under his breath.

"I guess we should continue round two of this little game of modern female empowerment."

"There is nothing empowering about this." Daisy grumbles.

* * *

Tiffany turns her back on the camera and walks over to the sleeping teen. She had herself a nice little nap prior to this. She is recharged, refueled and ready for action. Hopefully, the little Spider was ready as well. The dingy room brought the psychopath comfort. This is where could show the world her use. She picks up a lead pipe and places herself next to Peter.

"Wakey wakey, eggs and breaky." She sings, and in one quick second, Peter Parker awakens to the sound of his own scream as his kneecap is broken.

"Ahhhh, the sounds of progression."

"What the he-"

"Oh, nope, watch your vocabulary. You don't want mouth washed out with soap do you?" With that, Tiffany Sherwood begins round two of her little game, but this time with a different set of toys.

Poor Peter Parker never even got an answer to the question he spent the next several hours screaming.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Tony, Fitz, Daisy, Vision, Natasha, Happy and Jemma all sit around the main lab in complete silence. Peter's screams ended about a half hour ago. This time he blacked out on his own, likely from the pain, according to Jemma. Pale-faced and red eyes describe the room. Tony looks distraught, unable to comprehend his own inner turmoil.

 _"WHY, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT? STOP! PLEASE!"_

Tony doesn't think those questions will ever leave him. Peter's voice will never leave his head.

Happy is the first to move. He simply gets up and leaves. No words, he just leaves. Tony doesn't blame him.

"I'll get started on a health analysis." Jemma squeaks soon after. Her voice is horse. In a hurry to leave, she almost knocks over a tired and disgruntled Pepper Potts.

"Tony Stark I have been sitting with May Parker for-" She stops dead in her tracks once she sees the faces of the people in the room.

"Oh no, he isn't dead is he?" She beings to sob instantly.

"NO!" Tony jumps up snapping out of his daze. "He's not, we just haven't found him yet."

"Oh, well then... um..." She's confused as the collective look of defeat does not match the information she has just received.

"Has Happy been updating you?" Tony asks sensing her confusion.

"No, all I know is that Peter Parker, AKA Spiderman went missing about 40 hours ago and I have been sitting with his aunt since she got here over a day ago."

Everyone in the room shifts uncomfortably, unsure how to respond.

"Guys," Tony says turning to the rest of the team. "Get back to work, Fitz and Johnson, I'll join you as soon as I can." With a quick nod, the team disburses and Tony leads Pepper out of the lab into a secure corner of the compound.

"Tony, what's going on?" Pepper panics placing her hand on her chest in worry.

"There's no easy way to explain this-"

"Then explain it the hard way."

"Peter was kidnapped by one of my employees in search of revenge." He begins uneasily. "Her name is Tiffany Sherwood, and she worked in the coding department, and she has been live streaming herself torturing Peter for the past day."

"What!" Pepper chokes out. "I don't... why!"

"Its kinda hard to explain, basically she's pissed off about never getting a promotion."

"That doesn't even make sense. Why kind of manic does that?"

"She's... I don't know what she is, but she's damn good at coding. I've been working all day on trying to search for her IP address, but she's done a solid job hiding."

"Wow." Pepper breaths having a hard time comprehending what she has just heard.

"Clint, Sam, and Wanda are all out looking for him, and Natasha's... well I'm not sure what she's doing, but she's doing something to find the kid, and the girl that walked past you earlier is some sort of fancy medical doctor or something like that, basically she's monitoring the kid's health through the video."

"Okay, that's great Tony." Pepper breaths after a couple moment rest to regather her thoughts. "but what am I supposed to tell his aunt?"

"I don't know just making something up."

"Of course." Pepper grumbles as she watches Tony walk away. She's always making stuff up for Tony.

"Oh, I need a DNA sample of the kid, a recent one would be good," Tony shouts over his shoulder as he hustles over to his lab.

"How am I supposed to... and he's gone."

* * *

Brownish, old, broken and permantly stained with dirt, these are the words that pop into Pepper Potts head as she walks into the Parker apartment. Its a small apartment in the projects of Queens. A few boxes sit in the cornor, not yet unpacked.

"I'm sorry for the mess." May Parker sniffs. "We just moved about a month ago."

"Oh, that's quite alright." Pepper smiles sweetly.

"We have moved twice into the past couple months." May begins to explain leading Pepper to the small bedroom in the back to gather a couple of her things. "We had been living in tempory housing for about 7 years after the invasion a couple years ago. We were one of the last people to get our apartment back. Then we moved a couple months ago to a better place, but some unexpected expenses forced us to move to a different neighborhood."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Pepper says uncomfortably. Truth be told she had been living with Tony so long she had forgotten what it looked like to live in poverty. To be honest, her closet was bigger than May's room. After grabbing a few shirts, pants and a large book May walks out of her room back into the little hallway.

"Okay, that's everything." She states. Pepper stands awkwardly for a few moment unsure how to ask.

"Spit it out, sweetheart." May smiles sweetly through her worn out appearance.

"I'm sorry?" Pepper jumps in response.

"I've raised a Peter. I know when someone has something to say." May laughs lightly. Pepper smiles at her phrasing.

"We need a recent DNA sample from Peter..."

"Oh, of course..." May's face drains of the little color left and her body begins to shake.

"It doesn't mean anything bad, I assure you." Pepper attempts to comfort.

"I know," May says not looking back at her. "It's just... frightening."

The woman soon returns with the young hero's hairbrush.

"Will this work?"

"It's perfect." Pepper assures her. She furrows her brow as she looks down at May's other hand. There is a worn out stuffed white(ish) rabbit clutched in it. "What's that."

"Oh." May smiles genuinely. "This is Moseby."

"Who?" Pepper laughs following May's lead to sit on the dinky little couch. "Moseby, Peter's stuffed rabbit from when he was just a little baby. He used to be dressed in a white lab coat with gloves and goggles, but he lost those pieces long ago.

"A scientist." Pepper smiles.

"Yes, that's all Peter ever wanted to be. Ben was never really good at school and frankly neither am I, but his parents were geniuses in their own respect. His father got him that rabbit when he was born and the little thing hasn't left his side since. I honestly don't think he has spent the night away from the little guy, not even when he went to DC. He put the rabbit in the bottom of his duffle bag. He tried to pretend like he didn't pack the toy, but I know he did."

"That's so sweet." Pepper smiles.

"He keeps Dr. Moseby under his bed now, but I think that's mostly to save face." May laughs loudly. "After his parents died he wouldn't let go of the little thing for almost a year. I would have to wait until he fell asleep to wash it."

"Aww, that's so adorable." Pepper laughs. She doesn't know the boy personally, but she feels as if she does after listening to about a hundred stories about him from his aunt for the past day.

"Do you want to see a picture?" May asks eagerly.

"Of course!" Pepper grins from ear to ear. May reaches over and picks up the large book she grabbed out of her room earlier. It's a photo album full of pictures of little, smiley Peter Parker.

* * *

The next two days go the same as the first two. Clint, Wanda, and Sam work servalience. Jemma and Vision monitor Peter's health and with the help of the DNA sample, Jemma is able to make a digital model of Spiderman's body and able to estimate his condition. Fitz, Daisy, and Tony all work to break past the mountain of codes and firewalls and attempt to regain control over Friday. Natasha, after finding nothing on the footage to indicate the preditor's location, goes out searching and hunting down any and every lead.

Each new day Tiffany comes up with new games to play, and new ways to hurt the young hero. The team have adjusted to the sounds of Peter's screams and have learned to work through them. They don't have time to sit and watch Peter yell. By the end of the third day, Peter gave up on asking questions and switched to just screaming out in pain. No words, just yelling. Food and rest have been abandon. Nobody even notices the time past.

"You know, I expected more from you Mr. Stark," Tiffany says to the camera at the end of the fourth day. "Too bad, I honestly thought you had a chance."

With that, the woman walks off the screen.

"What does that mean?" Agent Johnson asks.

"I don't know," Tony mutters.

"It means she's preparing her end game." A blood-covered and disheveled Natasha answers from the door way.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Oh, my gosh are you okay!" Daisy exclaims at the state of Natasha's appearance.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine." She shrugs. "It's not my blood."

Daisy opens her mouth to speak, but instead just closes it and keeps her thoughts to herself.

"What do you know?" Tony asks cutting past all formalities.

"Through some intense negotiation, I found out who the target's partner is."

"What, that wack job has a partner!" Daisy gasps.

"Yes, Barton and I figured that out a couple days ago."

"How-"

"Don't ask questions that might incriminate you, Johnson." Daisy nods in response to the correction.

"So then what's next," Tony asks understanding it's probably best he doesn't know who the partner is.

"Continue as is," Natasha explains. "We need a backup plan in case Clint can't get this to work out."

There is a collective nod and the group goes back to work.

* * *

"Is she sure?" Sam asks.

"Don't ever asks if Nat is sure about something." Barton snaps. "If she says something is true, then it is."

The three Avengers are sitting outside the retirement home Wanda and Sam had been watching. Its 2 am.

"Here's what we are going to do," Barton whispers. "This is a soft entrance. We are in and out. We grab the subject and leave to the previously disclosed location."

"You mean the van?" Wanda deadpans.

"Yes, I mean the van," Clint says quickly. "Just- ugh- let's get this over with. I doubt the subject will give us much resistance."

With a quick nod, the trio takes off. Jumping into action Wanda opens the door without setting off the alarm using her abilities. Clint and Sam enter, sweeping the room as they go along. Sam takes the lead, as he had been the one running the recon out of the two. He takes them to a room on the east wing, room 42. Again, Wanda opens the door. Quietly they enter the small apartment type room. Wanda once again uses her abilities, but this time to put a sound barrier between the subject and the bystander. In one quick motion, Clint puts his hand over the mouth of the target, awakening the old woman. Sam instantly notices the same evil tint in the woman's eyes that he saw in the daughter. Using a small amount of sedative, Sam puts the woman unconscious. The two men quietly carry to woman out to the van as Wanda puts the man in a deep sleep and closes the doors behind them.

"Nice job team." Clint smiles. They have regrouped in the van, err... previously discussed undisclosed location.

"Why do I have to sit in the back?" Sam complains. He jesters to the fact that Clint and Wanda are sitting in seats in the front while he is just rolling around in the back with the crazy old lady, a couple of explosive arrows and what he assumes was at one point Clint's lunch.

"Becuase, a gentleman allows a woman to sit in the seat." Clint grins.

"Then why can't I drive and you sit in the back?" Sam sasses back.

"Becuase it's my van!" Clint gloats. "My van my rules. Now are you done complaining or should we take time to argue will Peter sits in a basement with this crazy bitch's crazy bitch daughter?"

"Just shut up and drive," Sam grumbles.

* * *

Tony sits in the lab working on a string of codes by himself. Its 2 AM on the fifth day Peter has been missing. Fitz and Johnson collapsed an hour ago. He doesn't blame them. They have been going nonstop for days, and quite frankly the only thing keeping him awake are caffeine and pure rage. A lovely mixture.

"Tony." Pepper whispers from the doorway. Tony looks up to see a woman he hardly recognizes. It's his wife to be Virgina Potts.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" He asks stepping away from the computer for the first in an as long as he can remember.

"May passed out about an hour ago and I haven't been able to sleep, so I came to talk to you." She is shaking. Tony walks her down the hall to a couch.

"What's going on."

"Anthony." She begins to sob. "You have to find Peter."

"Woah, hey its alright, we are going to find him." Tony attempts to comfort. Wait. He's being comforting, that's odd. He'll have to look into that later.

"No, Tony I don't think you understand." Pepper sniffs after collecting herself. "I have just spent the past four days either consoling a hysterical mother or listening to stories about an adorable little boy named Petey while flipping through a photo album of him. You need to find that precious child Tony. He is a beautiful and adorable little boy. I mean my gosh have you seen his baby pictures. He is an absolute angel!"

"Wow, Pepper, that's-"

"And then as soon as you have saved that precious baby from that evil woman. You are going to march over here to me and make a baby with me."

"I... what?" Tony doesn't even know what to say or think. Just... what?

"You heard me, sweetie. I want to Peter Parker of my own." She stately plainly. "I would request a clone, but that's creepy."

"I... wh- ... I mean.. I don't ... whaaaa?" Tony stutters absolutely flabbergasted.

"You heard me, sweetie. Now go and find that son of a bitch." With that, she stands up, kisses Tony's shocked expression on the cheek and walks away.

"I ... need... coffee... and a ... therapist...and... possibly a marriage consoulor." The billionaire stammers.

* * *

"Well.. well... look who decided to join us." Clint says. "Linda Sherwood, its nice of you to finally grace us with your presense."

"What, whats going on?" The old woman's voice shakes. "What's happening! Where's my husband, where's Eric! Somebody, please help me!"

"Cut the act you old bat," Clint yells in her face. "You have exactly 3 seconds to tell me where your daughter is keeping Spiderman or I will being to teach you a couple lessons I learned in a Russian prison."

"Clint's been in a Russian prison?" Wanda asks in a hushed voice to Sam. The pair had placed themselves in a corner of the abandoned warehouse giving Clint his space to work.

"I don't know, I mean... I guess." Sam shrugs.

"Spiderman, my daughter... I don't understand. Please, I think you are confused. I am just an old woman!" She begs.

"One." Clint begins.

"Please, I don't know what you are talking about!" She cries.

"Two." Clint reaches into his pocket and pulls out a knife.

"I beg you!" She cries. Clint raises the knife above her wrist. "If you want money I'll give it to you!"

"Clint maybe she doesn't-" Wanda begins, suddenly unsure of herself.

"Three!" The super spy brings the knife down toward her finger.

"CLINT!" Wanda screams.

"FINE!" The old woman yells. Her face showing genuine panic. "I'll tell you what I know."

There. Sam swears he sees it. The evil in her eye, it flashes for just a second.

"But you aren't going to like what I have to tell you." Her shrill (must be genetic) voice teases.

"That's fine," Clint says putting the knife back in his pocket. "Just start talking."

"About a couple months ago my daughter approached me with the news that she has once again been passed up for a promotion by a less qualified male coworker. Now, being the encouraging mother that I have always been, I encouraged my little girl to fight for the things she wanted. So she, following my advice, approached her employer on why she had never received a promotion in all her years working for Stark Industries. She came back with a report that she did not "possess leadership qualities" and "did not command the respect of her peers"."

"And you disagreed with this assessment?" Clint asks cutting in.

"Oh goodness no!" She breaks out laughing. "The assessment is dead on. Unfortunately, my daughter received her father's genes with respect to dominance. That man couldn't command the respect of a fruit fly. No, my daughter has never been able to just go get what she wanted, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a promotion. She shouldn't be the one to suffer because the egotistical males around her cannot submit to the authority given to them."

Clint was trying to be angry at the woman. He was trying to think of her as nothing but a lunatic, but he couldn't. He didn't entirely disagree with what she was saying. Not that he didn't think her actions were insane and evil, but he could understand the points she was making without much difficulty.

"So, naturally I decided something had to be done about Stark Industries corrupt and sexist policies." She shrugs ever so casually. "I instructed my daughter to do away with her bosses. Unfortunately, the girl never could never really do anything right, and a couple bystanders were lost along the way. But, I supposed that's the cost of doing business. Anyways, after she lit that apartment building on fire, and told me of her idea to go after the little vigilante, I must say, I was impressed. Her reasoning was sound, and her ideas fairly genius. All she had to do was hack into the traffic cameras to track his location, and wait for Spiderman to get near her position and pay a junkie to act like he was going to rape her right when Spiderman was within earshot. Then, once he "saved" her all she had to do was be a little enthusiastic, give him a hug and slip a needle with enough diazepam to knock out a rhino."

"That's how you caught the kid?" Sam interrupts with a mixture of shock and humor.

"Yes, simple and yet highly effective." The woman grins. Her words come off pompous and superior. She is a narcissist, Clint can see it.

"What happened next," Clint asks.

"How do you mean?" The woman asks with a glint of arrogance shining in her expression. She knows exactly what the spy wants, she just wants to hear him say it.

"What happened to Spiderman after he was drugged. What did Tiffany do with him, Mrs. Sherwood?" Her lips curl up into a smile worthy of the Grinch.

"Now, sweetpea, where would the fun be in telling you that? And it's Dr. Sherwood." Clint stares at the woman for a solid minute, and the woman shares back never breaking eye contact.

"Get Nat on the phone," Clint whispers to Sam after he walks over to him and Wanda. "I need to check with her before I continue."


	8. Chapter 7

**AN: I forgot the page breaks in the last few chapters again. : / ... Sorry, I fixed it.**

Chapter 7

Tensions are high in the lab. Simmons and Vision have joined Fitz, Daisy, and Tony. Its 8 am. They are staring at the live feed of Peter. For the past two days the crazy doctor has begun her little fun at 6 am sharp, but today, nothing. Peter has moved a couple times, groaned and then passed out again. Simmons estimates the concern for his health right now is hydration and infection. Two things his super healing won't be able to fix on its own. Fitz was able to regain control of Friday around 4:30 am early that day, but there had been no breakthrough in locating Peter. Natasha came back about 15 minutes ago looking less than pleased. The ringing of her phone is the only interruption to the silent tension.

"Barton." She answers flatly. "You are on speaker phone. Everyone is here."

"Okay." Clint begins. "We have Linda Sherwood, and she's definitely the mastermind behind all of this. Her daughter is really just a puppet. I doubt she even planned anything without at least the approval of her mother."

"Okay, what else. Do you have a location, an affiliation with an organization, any more partners, a timeline... anything else?" She asks hopefully. "All my leads turned up dry."

"I doubt there are any other partners, and from what I can tell there is no affliction with an organization. It's just a crazy woman and her crazy daughter." Clint explains. "She isn't giving a location. That's why I called you, do you have any reason for me to wait to continue the interrogation process?"

Natasha looks around the room. Tony looks eager, Simmons hopeful, Daisy uncomfortable as she is the only one in the room who knows what the two super spies are referring to, Vision looks... well pretty much like he always does, and Fitz fell asleep an hour ago. Natasha takes the conversation off speaker phone and walks into another room.

"You are off speaker phone." She informs her partner. "What do you know?"

"There isn't much to know," Clint admits. "She hasn't really told us anything we couldn't have figured out on our own."

"Okay, then lets piece this together. What do we know?"

"We know who Tiffany Sherwood is." Clint begins. "We know that she doesn't really have the dominance to do anything without her mother's approval or guidance. We know they are both crazy. We know the only reason they took Peter was to get back at Tony, which leaves the question of whether they plan on killing the kid or not."

"The end game." Natasha's breath hitches.

"What?"

"Yesterday I could tell Tiffany was preparing for her end game and today her pattern has changed up. She is nowhere to be seen and normally she is knee deep in Parker screams by now."

"That's not good," Clint mutters. "What has been her patterns over the past couple of days."

"Day one was knifes and electricity." Nat begins. "Day two fire and a lead pipe. Day three was a game of operation and something with battery acid. Day four... I think was just a repeat of all the other day." The two are silent while they think.

"Linda Sherwood sure is a crazy bitch isn't she," Natasha grumbles.

"Dr. Sherwood actually," Clint says mimicking the woman from earlier.

"What?" Nat laughs lightly.

"Oh, I called her Mrs. Sherwood earlier and she corrected me. A real narcissist this one."

"Clint!" Natasha gasps "Linda Sherwood has a Ph.D. in chemistry."

"The Congo!" The two partners gasp at the same time.

"But Tiffany doesn't have any chemistry abilities, does she?" Natasha asks.

"No, and I doubt her mother would allow her to try on her own, especially if this is the end game."

"That means-"

"The retirement home!" Clint rushes back over to the room in which he left Wanda, Sam, and the dear old doctor. "You two go back to the retirement home and look for Tiffany Sherwood to show up!"

A flash of panic breaks the old woman's cold and confident grin, but only for a moment.

"Why?" Wanda asks as she and Sam begin to follow orders.

"Nat will call you on the way to explain." He tells them as he puts the phone back up to his ear. "I'm continuing to enhanced interrogation." With that, he hangs up and walks over to the old woman with a bucket of water and a towel he grabs from the corner of the empty warehouse.

"Barton, you aren't really going to waterboard an elderly woman!" Wanda protests.

"GO!" Clint barks, and with that he and a nervous elderly woman are alone.

* * *

"What was that about?" Tony snaps angerly as a focused Natasha walks back into the room.

"We don't have time for your childish protests Stark," Natasha growls at him. It's go time. "I don't have time to explain to you how I know what I know or why I do what I do. I just need you to listen."

"What's going on?" Simmons asks.

"We know Tiffany's end game." Natasha begins to explain as she rapidly texts a bunch of people on her phone. "She is going to inject Peter with some type of chemical cocktail."

"What?" Tony panics.

"I'm not sure what the chemical is and I don't know the chemical will do to him. It could do nothing or kill him or do something... worse."

"How-"

"What did I just say!" She snaps, but she softens her expression when she sees the faces of her teammates. "Criminals like to think they are unique and creative. Like nobody like them has existed before, but that's just not true. A couple years back Clint and I saw almost the exact same pair of partners and pattern of escalation in the Congo on a mission."

"Did that guy... you know..." Daisy asks.

"Not at first, but he did eventually," Natasha answers softly.

"What do we need to do?" Fitz asks yawning slightly.

"Keep working on the hack. We are going to need a backup plan if Clint's plan doesn't work. Simmons, I emailed you a list of all the chemicals Dr. Linda Sherwood has bought over the past year. See if you can make sense of any of it, and prepare to receive Spiderman. Sam and Wanda are at the retirement home we picked Linda Sherwood up at. They are waiting for Tiffany to show up and hopefully, they are going to find her and be able to follow her back to Peter. Vision I need you to come with me to assemble a team to retrieve Spiderman."

"I want to be on that team," Tony interjects.

"Yeah me too," Daisy adds.

"And me!" Fitzsimmons add together.

"Uh no, I need you guys here. Trust me, the situation will be better served doing this. Plus we need to keep this low profile. The last thing we need is to have Iron Man all over the scene." Tony grumbles something in response but seems to understand Natasha's reasoning.

* * *

"Why did I let you drive!" Sam screams as the tires squeal around the corner of the parking lot into the Happy Hills Retirement Complex. "Do you even have a driver's licenses?"

"Oh, course not. I spent most of my life on a Hydra base being trained and tested by mad scientists." She laughs through her heavy accent. "I'm not even a US citizen so I don't think I could even get one if I wanted to!"

"Then why did you offer to drive?" Sam yells.

"Becuase I like driving!" She laughs as she slams the breaks in front of the building. After grumbling a few profanities, Sam jumps out of the car and rushes into the building with a picture of Tiffany in one hand and a fake badge in the other. He runs up to the front desk.

"FBI!" He yells at the woman. "Have you seen this woman today?"

"I.. what..." The woman panics.

"Dammit, woman we don't have time for this!" Sam yells pounding his fist on the counter.

"Uh, YES... YES, I have she left about an hour ago!" She shrikes. "But I don't know where she went! I can ask her mother and father if you would like!"

"No, we don't have time for that!" Sam yells without missing a beat, and he runs back out to Wanda. The last thing he needs is for the worker to discovering a man put in a deep sleep and his missing wife.

"GO GO GO GO!" Sam exclaims fanatically as he jumps back into the van. Without protest or question, Wanda hits the gas and the two speed away.

* * *

"I can tell you are enjoying yourself more than you'd like to admit!" Linda Sherwood laughs through her gasps of breath. The old bag is tougher than Clint would like to admit. A serious psychopath, no question.

"Why don't you take a break and listen to this old woman's story." Linda baits.

"As much as I would like to chat... oh wait... I don't want to chat." Clint shrugs as he once again continues the process of water enforced enhanced interrogation.

* * *

"What do you mean she was already gone by the time you showed up?" Natasha growls.

"I'm sorry but we missed her." Sam painfully admits. "Please tell me you guys are having better luck?"

Natasha checks for a message from Clint, nope. From Tony or Daisy, double nope.

"Not yet." She grumbles.

"What do we do now?" Sam asks. She wants to send them back to Clint to help him step up his progress, but the bottom line is it takes a special type of person to do what Clint has to do. Natasha doesn't want to put that type of blood on their hands.

"Just stay put," Natasha tells them. "And send me your exact location. I'll let you know if we find anything."

Natasha hangs up her phone and sighs.

"That bad huh?" An Asian woman asks walking over to Natasha.

"Yeah." She sighs rubbing the side of her face.

"Here." The Asain woman hands the super spy a water bottle.

"Thanks, May." Natasha smiles.

"No problem Nat, now let's go get that kid."

* * *

Nothing, absolutely nothing." Tony growls. "We've been working on this for days and nothing!"

"Calm down Stark," Fitz tells him. "Losing your mind isn't going to help anyone."

Tony wants to tell the little Scotish pipsqueak to can it, but he doesn't really have the energy.

"I've reached a dead end with the chemical list Agent Romanoff sent me," Jemma announces sadly as she enters the room.

"More good news," Tony grumbles sarcastically. "Friday what time is it?"

"It is 10:22 am." She informs him.

"Any news from Natasha?" He asks his AI.

"No sir."

"Of course there isn't."

* * *

Tiffany Sherwood walks up the building she had been keeping her little pet in for the past 5 days. She practically skips down the stairs and into the room where she has her live feed broadcasting from. A broken young boy lies on the table she has him strapped down to. She positions herself in front of the camera.

"Well Anthony Stark, it looks like you haven't been able to crack my code. That's too bad, it would have made this adventure a little more interesting." She shrugs. "Oh well, like they say. All good things must come to an end."

And with that, she happily skips over to Peter Parker.

"Nooooo." The young boy moans. "Please..."

"Oh I'm sorry honey, but it's your time." She lifts up a small syringe and places the needle into the boy's neck. "Your contributions to the fight for equality have been greatly appreciated."

She places her thumb on the end of the plunger of the syringe, grinning ear to ear.

"Move a muscle and I shoot."

 **Hey so life is busy and I won't be able to update unless I get some interest. Sorry.**


	9. Chapter 8

**I hope this satisfies you. Thank you for the encouragement.**

Chapter 8

"Oh well, all good things must come to an end." Tiffany Sherwood smiles. Tears pour freely down the face of Tony Stark as he watches the woman skip over to Peter.

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM YOU CRAZY BITCH!" Tony yells at the screen. "I SWEAR I'M GOING TO HUNT YOU DOWN AND KILL YOU!"

She jabs a needle into Spiderman's neck.

"NOOOO!" The group collectively screams.

* * *

"Move a muscle and I shoot." A shaky male voice interrupts.

Tony's heart leaps and a smile breaks out. He knows that voice.

"Who the hell are you!" Tiffany spits.

"Happy, Happy Hogan." Happy answers firmly. "And that's my kid you've got there."

Happy has a gun pointed at Tiffany Sherwood's heart.

"Well, isn't this embarrassing." Tiffany laughs. "And here I was thinking Tony Stark was the one looking for this little tike. I guess he didn't care about the kid as much as I thought. The best he could do is send his driver!"

"Just put the syringe down and this can all be over." Happy informs her.

Tiffany's face drops from joy to rage.

"Over!" She hisses. "OVER! This will never be over! Women will always be oppressed! Women will always be overlooked! Women will always be seen as the weaker sex! Tell me Happy do I look weak to you!"

"No." Happy says trying to calm her down. "You look very strong... but I think it takes an even stronger person to not hurt somebody when they have the ability to."

Tiffany seems to genuinely think over what Happy has said for a few seconds.

"Don't try and trick me!" She hisses clearly beginning to panic. "I know... I know what I want."

"Tiffany, please don't do this!" Happy begs frantically. "His name is Peter Parker. He's a 15-year-old science prodigy at Midtown High. He was orphaned at age 7 and had to watch his uncle die when the attack happened on New York 8 years ago. He's one of the nicest kids you are ever going to meet. He lives with his Aunt May. They are the only family they have left. Please, don't hurt him." Tiffany's gaze drops and her smile completely fades. For the first time since he has seen her, she looks human.

"This is the only way to make them understand." She whispers. "I'm sorry."

She injects the liquid into Peter, and Happy shoots the gun. Her body drops and Peter's body begins to shake.

* * *

"Tiffany, please don't do this!" Happy begs frantically. "His name is Peter Parker. He's a 15-year-old science prodigy at Midtown High."

"Dang he's young." Daisy breaths. Everyone in the room has their eyes glued to the screen.

"He was orphaned at age 7 and had to watch his uncle die when the attack happened on New York 8 years ago. He's one of the nicest kids you are ever going to meet. He lives with his Aunt May. They are the only family they have left. Please, don't hurt him."

"Oh, that's so sad!" Jemma states almost automatically.

"Please, please, don't," Tony begs the screen tearfully.

"This is the only way to make them understand."

"NO!" Tony screams.

"I'm sorry."

The bang of the gun and the sound of Peter's body shaking fill the room.

* * *

"No no no no no no!" Happy breaths as he sprints over to Peter's seizing body. Happy takes the restraints off Peter and pulls him off the table. "Come on kid! Don't do this!"

The next thirty seconds Happy holds Peter's head down while he has a grand mal seizure. He is so focused on the kid he is startled when his phone goes off.

"Where are you!" Tony yells into the phone. Right, the live feed. Happy completely forgot about that. "2342 East Lindale St. Queens."

"I'm sending a SHIELD med evac team," Tony tells him quickly. "Natasha should be there any minute with some backup."

"Boss-"

"Don't worry we'll have a medic there in 10 minutes, 15 tops," Tony tells him.

"Boss-"

"Good work Happy."

"TONY!"

"What."

"We're in the basement of the kid's apartment building."

* * *

Peter's seizure lasts another two minutes. Definitely not good. The next 4 minutes Happy just sits there holding the boy. Burns and cuts litter his body. His Spiderman suit has almost fallen off his body at this point. The boy is dirty and covered in his own dried blood. His face looks pained and sweat pours out of his body. Behind his eyelids, Happy can see Peter's eyes are twitching rapidly. Peter feels light. He's always been a smaller boy, but this is different.

"Happy." Natasha breaths walking into the basement. She has brought Melinda May and Vision with her. "How is he?"

"I don't know... not good... I mean... I can't really tell... but she injected him with that" Happy chokes out clutching the boy tightly.

"He appears to be in distress." Vision says.

"That's because he is you floating robot!"

"I'll take this to Simmons," May states picking up the syringe and putting it into a plastic bag.

"I'll deal with this," Natasha says referring to Tiffany Sherwood.

A minute later a SHIELD medical team rushes into the room and takes Peter from Happy.

* * *

"We have him," Natasha tells Clint. "Simmon's got him."

"Did she-"

"Yeah"

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"I'll bring in Dr. Sherwood to the compound."

"Sounds good."

"I'll tell Sam and Wanda."

"Thanks"

"Yep."

Clint looks over his shoulder. A drenched Linda Sherwood is sitting in her chair. Never once did she break. Who is this woman? And what has she done to Peter Parker?

 **I am debating changing the title to a Schizophrenic Spider**

 **PS: Sorry that was a spoiler**


	10. Chapter 9

**Ehhh... sorry for the long wait. Please review. They aid my highly needly/angsty soul.**

"Peter!" Tony yells sprinting up to the boy. The SHIELD medivac team has arrived at the Avengers Compound.

"Bring him in here!" Jemma Simmons orders to the other agents. They comply. Tony grabs the boy's unconscious hand. An oxygen mask covers his bloody face. Due to the way the camera Tiffany Sherwood had set up, Tony and the rest of the team had never been able to get a good view of Peter's face or body. He looked much worse than Tony had imagined. His suit had done little to protect him against the games of Tiffany Sherwood. Peter's suit was one tug away from completely falling off. Whatever chemical agent had been injected into Peter's blood had caused seizures. Dried spit and blood had formed a ring around the boy's mouth. The world slows down to Tony when he reaches Peter. He runs next to the gurney never taking his eyes off his young apprentice, scared Tiffany would come back and steal him away.

"He coded twice on the way here!" Tony vaguely hears a voice announce as they move into a new room.

"He hasn't seizures since the last time he coded." Another voice continues.

"His O2 levels are low." One of the voices yell.

"There's blood in the ear canal!"

None of this registers with Tony. He barely hears the voices. Peter's face is pale, and he looks so small.

"Mr. Stark you need to let go of Peter now," Simmons tells him. They are in a new room, but what room? He doesn't recognize this place.

"Mr. Stark." Tony doesn't respond. He just stares at the face of the little Spider.

"Tony, let go of Peter." For the first time, Tony looks away from his young protege and into the face of Bruce Banner. The man looks older than the last time he saw him. Where has he been all this time? How does he know Peter? Why is he here?

"Okay," Tony answers, and with that, he lets go of Peter and allows a nurse to lead him out of the room.

* * *

"Any news?" Daisy asks Fitz as he walks into the room. Wanda, Vision, Clint, Daisy, Vision, May and Natasha have all found their way into the Avenger's living room. Its been a couple hours since Peter was found and brought to the compound.

"No, Jemma was to busy to talk." Fitz answers. "All I know is that he's not in surgery, and not dead."

"That's good," Natasha says trying to lighten the mood.

"What'd you guys do with Linda Sherwood?" Daisy asks.

"Gave her to SHIELD." Clint shrugs. "She's their problem now."

"Don't you want to try and get more information out of her?" Fitz asks.

"What's the point? She accomplished her goal didn't see?" Clint asks. "They were lone actors. Nobody else played a factor in this."

"What about trying to figure out what she injected into Peter?" Wanda asks.

"We have the syringe Tiffany used on him." Agent May answers. "Don't worry, we'll have access to her if we ever need to get any information from her."

"Doesn't Peter have an Aunt or something?" Sam asks after a few moments of silence. "Has anyone talked to her yet?"

"Well... shit," Clint mutters.

* * *

"Why did you bring me along for this Barton?" Natasha complains.

"Becuase I don't want to do this myself!"

"SO!" She hisses. "This isn't what we do! We aren't social workers. In fact, we're the opposite of social workers, we're... unsocial workers!"

"Come on Nat, have a heart!" Clint begs. "This poor woman has been sitting in the dark while he nephew has been missing for the past 5 days. She doesn't even know we found him a couple hours ago! In her basement of all places!"

"Yeah you know that's not even the worse part." Natasha begins to add. "It turns about Tiffany Sherwood had just moved into the apartment above the Parkers like 2 weeks ago. Her check hadn't even cleared yet. That's why there wasn't a current address on her."

"They were neighbors!" Clint gasps.

"Judging by the lack of recognition on Tiffany's face when she took the kid's mask off, I doubt they had ever even met before."

"Gosh, this is really screwed up." Clint groans rubbing his temples.

"You know, Tony mentioned that other day that Peter's aunt is really scary." Natasha muses. "I'm interested to see what Stark classifies as a scary woman."

"I'm pretty sure he classifies you as a scary woman." Clint smiles at her.

"Yeah, but I'm scary in a secret spy type of way." Natasha shrugs. "She's probably scary in the momma bear type of why."

"I get that, Luara can be like that sometimes." Clint smiles. It's hard for him to be away from his family this long, especially after a mission like this.

"You'll be home to them soon." Natasha smiles. "Come on, let's get this over with."

* * *

Tony sits alone in a chair outside the medical department of the compound. He desperately wants a drink, but he doesn't want to be drunk when they let him see Peter. Tony notices a smug of Peter's blood in on the palm of Tony's right hand. Peter must have had some on his hand.

"Rough day?" A friendly voice asks. Tony looks up to see a disheveled Dr. Banner.

"Is Peter okay?" Tony ask frantically as he bolts up from his seat.

"Woah, calm yourself, buddy," Bruce says placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. He takes a seat next to Tony, and in turn, Tony sits back down.

"Just answer to question Banner." Bruce looks down at his hands, nods and raises his gaze back to his friend.

"Tony I don't think-"

"Damn it Banner!" Tony barks. Bruce swears he sees a little bit of the Hulk come out of Tony.

"Okay, this helps nobody!"

"For the love of-"

"Its not good Tony." Bruce cuts him off. He realizes now the only way to calm the man down is with the truth. He's right. The second the words come out of his mouth the billionaire's expression turns from anger to something else... sadness, fear or maybe even defeat. Bruce can't tell and honestly doubts Tony even knows what he is feeling. Once he is certain the man isn't going explode, Bruce continues. "Around 30 percent of his body is covered in cuts or burns. His kneecap was shattered and his arm was broken. A couple ribs were cracked, and his appendix and spleen were removed by someone who obviously had no training. Also, some of his organs were moved around in weird places. His lower and smaller intestines were moved around to unnatural positions. We had to put them back, and then reconstruct his knee. His arm had already partially healed so we had to rebreak it so we could set it again."

"Okay, well the kid heals fast. He'll bounce back from this." Tony's voice cracks.

"Tony..." Bruce trails off. The elephant in the room needed to be addressed both men knew it. "It's not really his body we are worried about. Whatever that woman injected into Peter's neck... was... well we don't know what it was. Our labs are still trying to figure out all the ingredients, but it has caused major damage to his brain. The chemical caused his blood to become extremely thin, that's why his heart stopped and his brain began to bleed. Luckily we didn't have to perform surgery on his brain, we were able to fix it with medication and it seems his blood is returning to normal. However, we have run a CT and MRI of his brain and we found some anomalies."

"What do you mean?" Tony gulps. "Is the kid brain dead or something?"

"No, he's not brain dead. In fact, he'll probably wake up within the next day or two." Bruce informs him. "We won't know for sure until he wakes up, but there is lessened activity in the frontal cortex and his neurotransmitters are much different than the average 15-year-old boy. Some levels are high, and some are low."

"I don't understand."

"Honestly, we don't either," Bruce admits. "This could be a temporary thing or it could be a permanent thing. We don't really know anything. In fact, we could be completely wrong and the kid could be 100% fine."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, since we don't have scans prior to the introduction of the injection, this could possibly just be Peter's normal brain," Bruce says. "He is a mutant after all."

"I guess that's true," Tony admits feeling a little better. Maybe Peter is fine. He just has a different brain than must kids because of the whole genetically modified human thing.

"You know what would really help though."

"What?"

"Peter's medical records," Bruce says rubbing his chin. "Yes, him and his family. Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, anybody who shares genetics with him." Tony's eyes widen at the word aunt.

"Damn it!" He gasps. Tony quickly grabs Bruce's arm and drags him down the hall.

"Wait, where are you taking me!" Bruce protests.

"To talk to two seriously worried and soon to be pissed off women."

 **AN: Next chapter will be interesting ... a little bit of rom-com relief, nothing much**


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Hello," Natasha says sweetly as she opens the door. May Parker and Pepper Potts are sitting together on a coach. Cloths, a book, a stuffed rabbit and a couple food wrappers are scattered around the room. In the small room are a bed, the couch the women are sitting on, a TV, a trash can, a dresser and a door which opens to a bathroom. Natasha and Clint aren't entirely sure what the purpose of the small room is, perhaps to house people for a single night, but they don't put much thought into it. They are here on a mission.

"Wait, you two are those Avengers that were on the TV a couple years back," May states nervously standing up instantly.

"Umm, yes Ma'ma that is us," Clint answers nervously. This must be Spiderman's aunt. She is much prettier than he imagined.

"Do you know something!" She asks frantically. "Do you know something about what happened to my baby!"

"Yes." Natasha begins. Dang, she didn't realize this would be so hard. There's a lump in her throat the size of the motherland.

"Oh gosh he's dead, isn't he? My little Petey is dead!" The woman begins to sob.

"NO!" Clint jumps in, gosh, Nat is really bad at this. Not that he should be surprised. This isn't exactly something they teach you in the Red Room... or the SHIELD Academy for that matter. "We found him a couple hours ago. He's alive."

"Oh... umm... okay." May calms down. There's a pause for a moment, just a moment as if she was unsure what to say next. However, once the moment was over, both Clint and Natasha understood Tony's fear of the woman instinctively. "How is he? Can I see him? Is he hurt? And why the HELL DID IT TAKE YOU SO LONG TO TELL ME? I HAVE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR DAYS WITH ABSOLUTELY NO NEWS NO UPDATES ON HOW THE INVESTIGATION IS GOING! I HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT PATIENT FOR THE SAKE OF PETER! BUT NOW YOU SELF-ABSORBED IDIOTS COME MARCHING IN HERE TO TELL ME YOU HAVE HAD HIM FOR HOURS! DO YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO SIT FOR DAYS COMPLETELY IN THE DARK KNOWING THAT YOUR SON, YOUR ONLY FAMILY, HAS BEEN CAPTURED BY SOME MANIC AND HAVING GOD KNOWS WHAT HAPPEN TO HIM! I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE SOME FREAKING SUPERHERO SPY FOR THE AVENGERS! I'M GOING TO KILL BOTH OF YOU FOR MAKING ME WAIT HOURS TO TELL ME THAT MY BABY IS SOMEWHERE IN THIS BUILDING WHILE I HAVE BEEN THINKING HE WAS DEAD IN A DITCH SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY!"

Then, before either Natasha or Clint could react, May Parker lunged at both of them. She didn't have a plan of action, she was just overcome with pure rage.

"OKAY!" Pepper yelps leaping after May. "Calm down May, they are just the messengers! They have been working nonstop for the past 5 days to find your nephew!"

At her new friend's advice, May collects herself and the two super-spies reorganize themselves.

"That's quite a right hook you have." Clint groans rubbing his jaw. Natasha just smiles, she's liking this Aunt May woman already.

"How is my nephew?" May asks pointedly as she flattens the wrinkles out of her shirt.

"We have yet to be informed," Natasha admits. "But, he is probably going to be in rough condition."

May sits down, clearly biting back tears.

"Give it to me straight. Tell me everything that happened to Peter over the past few days. I want to know." Her voice cracks out. "I can handle it."

Clint and Natasha exchange looks, and look over at Pepper. She gives them a nod of approval. The two women have become close over the past few days, bonding over the dangerous lives of their loved ones, laughing at funny stories of the odd geniuses and reminiscing to a time when their lives were simpler. Pepper Potts as seen an incredible strength in May Parker over the past 5 days. She knows she can handle the truth.

Clint takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, sends a prayer up to a God he isn't sure he believes in and begins to tell the story of Dr. Tiffany Ann Sherwood.

* * *

"So, computers are your thing." Sam smiles suggestively as he scooches closer to Daisy on the coach.

"Its one of many." She smiles back. There's nothing wrong with a little flirting. She tells herself. It's not like she is trying to marry the guy on the spot.

"Oh yeah, what else do you like." Sam chuckles a little, once again scooting closer.

"If I told you I'd have to kill you." Daisy jokes... kinda jokes anyways.

"Oh, top-secret huh?"

"Let's just say it could really... shake you up."

"Now I like the sound of that." Sam flashes a grin that could send Cap and Bucky to the back of the line.

"I bet you would." This time its Daisy moving closer to Sam.

"You know, I bet you could tell me," Sam tells her through a thick smile. "I'm kinda a big deal, you know, being an Avenger and all..."

"Ow!" Daisy laughs. "Had to bring out the big guns!"

"Haha... guilty as charged." Sam laughs.

"This is harder to watch than a 15-year-old getting the side of his face burned with a lighter." Fitz groans. Wanda and Vision burst out laughing. It's a morbid joke, but the tensions have been running so hard the past few days, it's a welcomed joke.

"Hey!" Daisy protests. "I'm just trying to have a little fun!"

"Now I definitely like the sound of that!" Sam practically yells out in excitement. Daisy smiles and rolls her eyes at the man's response.

"Alright you two, grab your stuff. It's wheels up in 10." May states as she walks into the room.

"WHAT!" Fitz, Daisy, and Sam jump up at the same time.

"You heard me. We've got places to be." May answers. "I'll go find Simmons."

"Wait, don't they still need Simmons here?" Daisy asks. "You know, to figure out what that crazy lady injected into Peter?"

"They have someone else now." May answers. "She has done her part. Wheels up in 9."

"You've got to be kidding me." Sam groans falling back onto the couch.

"Sorry." Daisy shrugs. "Duty calls."

Sam tries to protest, but he can't. He understands more than he would like to. Fitz gets up and walks out of the room and heads back to the lab to grab his stuff. Before Daisy leaves, she bends down and whispers something into Sam's ear, something that turns his sad little frown upside down. With a wink, she leaves, Sam watching her walk away.

"What did she say?" Wanda asks smiling. It's nice to see a change in mood.

"Oh, nothing... just her phone number!" Sam grins like a 13-year-old girl.

"Really!" Wanda laughs at his excitement. "Do you remember all the digits she gave you?"

Sam's face drops.

"I'll be right back!"

Vision and Wanda break down in tears of laughter.

* * *

Video camera. Torture. The basement, _their_ basement. A promotion. Dr. Linda Sherwood. Her new neighbor. Injection. Happy Hogan. Seizure. Stark Industries. _Tony Stark_. These are the words that flood the mind of May Parker. Clint and Natasha have given her the gift of the truth. While there are still holes in the story, questions that are yet to be answered. At least she has an idea of what happened.

"Oh gosh!" May suddenly realizes. Her face turns from pale to green.

"What is it May?" Pepper asks frantically.

"Early Monday morning, the day Peter went missing, I got up early to do a load of laundry before Peter got up, and I went down to the basement where the wash machines are at, but there was a sign that said closed for repairs. The door was locked and everything... Peter was down there!" She sobs. "He was down there and I didn't even realize he was missing!"

Pepper, Clint, and Nat all give each other the same heartbroken look. For once in her life, Natasha is happy with the life she has been given. For once she can say "I'm so glad that isn't me".

"There's no way you could have known!" Pepper tells her as she embraces her friend.

"Happy Hogan did!" May sobs. Clint and Natasha straighten up. How did Happy know where to go?

"That was... well... we aren't really sure how he knew either," Natasha admits. It takes a solid ten minutes to calm May down, but once she has there is only one thought on her mind.

"I want to see Peter." As if on cue, Tony Stark chooses that exact moment to walk into the room, with a nervous looking Dr. Banner in tow.

"Get out." She mother bear growls instinctively.

Tony is puzzled at the woman's reaction at first, but one look at the faces of Natasha and Clint, and he understands. She knows. He looks over to Pepper for back-up. Her faces says it all "You are on your own buddy. PS you deserve everything she gives you."

"Are you deaf or just stupid?" May questions him angerly. "I said, get out!" She resembles a lion.

"Listen, I know you are mad at me-"

"HA!" The woman bursts out. "Mad at you? Sweetie, I could never be mad at you." Her laughter reminds the Avengers of Tiffany's shrill high pitched laughter. "No, I don't think mad is the proper verb to use here. How about instead we use the words livid, hatred, enraged, fuming, infuriated, outraged, furious-"

* * *

What do you think his scans mean Dr. Cho?" An anxious young SHIELD doctor asks her superior. They two are looking at the CT and MRI scans of Peter Parker's brain.

"Like I said earlier, Janet." Dr. Cho says patiently "It's too early to tell."

"But if you had to guess..."

"This is medicine, Dr. Jones." Dr. Cho scolds her firmly. "We do not make guesses unless we absolutely avoidable."

"I'm sorry Dr. Cho." She says looking ashamed. Dr. Cho allows a small smile to grace her face for a second, but only a second. She remembers when she was that young, that eager, that... pure.

"I have seen scans like this before." She tells the young girl.

"Where?" Dr. Jones asks perking up.

"In medical school." She sighs.

"I don't understand..."

"As you can imagine, we don't see these types of patients at SHIELD very often." She sighs sadly.

"I'm lost, doctor."

"The scans I saw were that of a patient who had been diagnosed with a nasty mental disease."

"Wait, are you telling me..."

"I'm afraid so."

"But how... how could one single little injection do this to a person's mind?"

"That does seem to be the million dollar question, doesn't it." Dr. Cho shakes her head. This single injection has given Peter Parker schizophrenia.

* * *

"...peeved, vexed, pissed, venom, uproar, wrath, hysterics, violence, murderous, have I mentioned hatred, ravenous-" May pulled out a thesaurus on her phone about 30 words ago.

"Okay, I think he gets it May," Pepper says trying to be supportive of her hurt friend while also defending Tony and making a point.

"Can it fiance!" Pepper simply nods and steps back in line, not wanting to get hit with a May bullet. After another round of 10 or so words, May comes to a holt and takes a deep breath before saying:

"Take me to Peter. You can update me on the walk over to him." Tony simply nods and follows orders. Pepper can't help but be a tad bit jealous of May's control over her highly eccentric boyfriend.

Natasha and Clint don't follow Pepper, Tony, and May. Their job is done. Now its time to take a break before wrapping up this mess.

"Nat wait!" Bruce calls out to her. The super spy stops dead in her tracks. Her partner knows better than the mild-mannered doctor and practically sprints away from the situation. Natasha turns on her heels and smiles brightly (but in a creepy, unnatural way, not in a warm and friendly way).

"Yes Dr. Banner?" She asks. Bruce is taken aback at her use of the word doctor. He might not be the greatest at social interactions, but he can tell this is not good. "Did you want to update me on Spiderman's condition?"

"Oh... umm... no... actually its something else." He stammers.

"Oh." She frowns. "Do you have a message for me from one of our coworkers?"

"Uh, no."

"Do you need help finding your way around the compound? Or were you needing help to find someone? Or were you concerned about me or one of our coworker's performance? Or..." At Bruce's clearly distressed face Natasha changes tones to one of more seriousness. "Wait... Dr. Banner, you didn't want to talk about something... personal, did you? Oh, how embarrassing! I'm flattered at your trust in me, but I'm afraid that is inappropriate behavior in the workplace, r. Banner. You see, as co-workers... Dr. Banner, we don't share personal aspects of our lives with each other. In case you have forgotten after being away for so long, co-workers don't share the personal aspects of their lives with each other, Dr. Banner. And as you know, Dr. Banner, that is all we are. Coworkers... Dr. Banner."

With that, she turns her back on him and walks away, chin held high.

"Well... that could have gone better," Bruce grumbles as he walks away, shoulders slumped.

 **I haven't see the new Thor so the details about Bruce's werabouts are going to be nonexistant and glazed over.**

 **PS Review... they give me life.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11

May Parker's face reads fierce determination. Never once during Tony's monologue about her nephew's health did it read anything else. Her fists are clenched and she walks fast. A woman on a mission. Bruce has managed to catch up but only interjects when Tony forgets something or doesn't explain something properly.

"Here," Bruce says. He has led them to the room Peter is being kept in. "It can be intense walking into this situation. Don't be afraid to step out at any time."

"Don't worry about me," May grumbles walking into the room.

When she opens the door, Tony stops dead in his tracks. The kid looks more like a mummy than Spiderman. Unlike the eccentric billionaire, May Parker walks directly up to the unconscious child, grabs his hand and kisses him on the forehead, never missing a beat.

"Hey, there sweetie." May Parker whispers, choking back a small sob. "I see you got yourself into trouble again."

"Ma'ma." Bruce interrupts. "I hate to bother you right now, but it would be really helpful for our doctors to have a couple of Peter's medical history and a copy of his entire biological family's medical history, at least as far back as his grandparents."

"Of course." May sniffs. "Whatever you need. Although I should warn you, he doesn't have any biological family members left, at least none that we know the location of."

"What do you mean?" Bruce asks whipping out a notepad and pen.

"Oh, um, Mary, Peter's mother, had a sister, but nobody had heard from her in years by the time she and Richard died."

"Interesting." Bruce murmurs as he walks out of the room.

Tony has yet to move out of the doorway. He just stands there watching May talk to Peter.

"You know you had me really worried about you," May tells her sleeping nephew. "I woke up on Monday morning and you weren't there. I'm grounding you by the way for going out after curfew. Some people might say what you have gone through is punishment enough, but those people would be wrong. They don't know how incredibly thick your skull is." May bites her lip but then continues. "The doctors said your body will probably be completely healed within two to three weeks, but they said the injection that evil woman gave might have messed up your brain. They said they might not be able to fix what's happened to you."

"How are you doing?" Pepper whispers as she walks up from behind Tony.

"Not well." He answers mechanically.

"I know." Pepper whispers sadly. "I know."

* * *

"I need to go home," Clint tells his partner. Its been a couple hours since they approached May Parker. They have rested and refueled.

"It's okay." Natasha smiles. "Kiss Luara and the kids for me."

"I will." Clint nods as he picks up his bag and walks past his longtime friend. Natasha understand's her partner's need to be with his family. She understands that he told his wife he was done with this life, yet he is always being roped back. Luara has always been incredibly understanding of her husband's occupation, she knew what she was marrying into, but that doesn't change her need for him to help with the kids.

Natasha sits in her room, a place she honestly didn't ever expect to see again, and reads a book. She might be a super spy, but that doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy a good read every now and again. She is two chapters in when her text alert goes off.

 **Clint: Coulson wants us to complete a mission report...**

Natasha rolls her eyes before replying.

 **Natasha: Don't worry I got it.**

 **Clint: Thanks, I owe you!**

 **Natasha: I'll put it on your tab.**

With a slight groan, Natasha pushes herself up from her comfy bed and walks over to her desk. All a mission report really is, is a summary of what happened. Although, with all the loose ends left to be tied up, this should keep her busy for a little while. However, this was a good excuse to get the one question that has been bugging her all day answered. How did Happy know where to find Peter? Tony had not been able to hack past Tiffany's coding and firewalls. Sam and Wanda missed Tiffany when she went back to her parent's retirement home. Clint hadn't been able to get Linda Sherwood to talk, and last she heard Eric Sherwood was still in the deep sleep Wanda had put him in. So, the question remains, how did Happy know where to find Peter?

"Friday," Natasha asks the AI. "Where is Happy Hogan?"

"I'm afraid he left the compound hours ago." The AI informs.

"Do you know where he went?" Natasha hopes.

"I do not." It's curious that Happy has just up and left like this. Especially with the kid still in pretty bad condition.

"Do you have a home address for him?"

An affirmative answer sends Natasha Romanoff on a trip back to the city. The drive takes over two hours in the Friday night rush home. Happy's apartment building is nicer than Peter's but its still not exactly Tony Stark's tower.

"Apartment 12... where are you..." Natasha banters to herself quietly. "Ah, here we go." She knocks, no reply. She tries again, still nothing. Once more, and she gets a response.

"Woooaaahhh there bucky!" A funny voice laughs through the door. That voice sounded too high pitched to be Happy's. Maybe he moved and Stark hadn't updated his files...

"Natty!" Happy laughs as he opens the door. "I thought you were the pizza man!"

"Happy?" Natasha questions. Happy Hogan, a usually well dressed and professional looking man, is in a pair of dirty sweatpants, disgusting stained white undershirt, and a bathrobe. The man looks disheveled to put it nicely.

"Yep, that's me!" He burps. "With the help of my friends Mary and Jack I'm feeling super duper happy!"

"Lovely." Nat's lips curl up in disgust. Weed and whiskey, always a fun combo.

"Sorry about the mess boss." Happy tells the red-haired assassin. He leads her to a couch where the two sit down. Natasha has to move a couple empty bottles to make room for herself, but she manages. "Wanna drink or maybe some pot?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass."

"Alright, more for me." Where did Happy even find the time to go out and by pot? Being Tony's personal monkey is a full-time job.

"I'm, here on business." Natasha clarifies.

"Okay, what's up?"

"I came over here to ask you how you knew where to find Peter at earlier today?" The man's face darkens. He takes another swig of Jack Danials before answering her.

"I didn't, it was luck." He begins. "I woke up this morning in the compound and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I've spent the past 5 days doing almost nothing but wondering around worrying. I guess there isn't much a retired boxer can do when looking for a kidnapped super-kid. Anyways over the past couple days, I've wandered over to the kid's apartment building to just... I don't know, stare at the building. This morning I did it again, but this time I saw that crazy computer lady walking into the building and I followed her down to Peter. I was lucky, I had my gun with me. I only bring it along with me like 50% of the time."

Natasha's mouth hangs agape at the sudden realization. This was a fluke. Finding Peter was a fluke, a coincidence. If Happy hadn't been there if Tiffany had lived in another building if Happy hadn't noticed who she was or if Tiffany had moved Peter to a different location, they wouldn't have been able to rescue him. All the work the team did, the hacking, the recon, the waterboarding, all of it, none of it helped.

Luck is the only reason Peter Parker is alive.

"Happy, that's incredible." Natasha breaths.

"Incredibly lucky maybe."

"Well... yes, but-"

"But if I had been doing my job correctly and kept tabs on the kid instead of just giving him space none of this would have happened in the first place!" Happy yells obviously becoming angry.

"Don't do that to yourself, Hogan," Natasha warns. "If you play those games with yourself, you aren't going to like the ending, trust me."

"HE WAS MY RESPONSIBILITY NATASHA!"

"That doesn't mean what happened was your fault! Even if you had called him every day, even if you constantly were checking up on him you couldn't have stopped Tiffany! You couldn't have stopped what happened to him."

Happy is silent. He takes another drink.

"That kid is so annoying you know." He hiccups.

"Yeah, I remember." Natasha laughs lightly.

"But he's still a good kid, a really good kid..." Happy yawns.

"I'm sure he is." Natasha smiles as she stands up.

"How about you get some sleep and I'll come by tomorrow and check up on you." Happy nods in agreement. "And lay off the jack and jane, okay?"

The super spy kindly leads the man to the bedroom in the back where he promptly passes out. As she leaves she notices a small collection of picture frames on his dresser. One is of him as a boxer. Natasha smiles at the memory of the time the two meet. She was working undercover for Tony and Happy tried to best her in a fight. The other picture was of a very young Happy Hogan standing next to three other people, his mother, his father, and his brother. At least, that's what Natasha assumes they are. The third was one of Happy and Tony together. They are smiling and look like a pair of old friends, instead of boss and employee. The fourth picture was the most curious. It was of him and Pepper together. A normal person would have only seen a picture with two coworkers, but her trained eye saw more. She saw, for the first time, the love Happy hid for Pepper. It was clearly not mutual, but Happy must know that. Natasha looks over at the sleeping man. It must be so hard for him to watch his boss, his friend, and a woman he clearly has feelings for, possibly love, and fall in love and now become engaged.

"Oh, Harold." Natasha sighs, and with that, she leaves the booze-filled apartment.


End file.
